Flipping the script
OSU FOOTBALL It’s been a different kind of week for the Oklahoma State defenders. They were Saturday’s saviors at Texas in the 13-10 overtime victory.
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STILLWATER — Ramon Richards was literally the last player off the Oklahoma State practice field Tuesday night.
Last Saturday’s hero for his game-clinching interception at Texas was at the back of the Sherman Smith Training Center, working on his coverage skills against deep routes in preparation for Saturday’s 11 a.m. kickoff at No. 22 West Virginia.
It’s been a different kind of week for the Oklahoma State defenders. They were Saturday’s saviors at Texas in the 13-10 overtime victory.
For a few days around campus, they’ve been getting the star treatment usually reserved for the No. 11 Cowboys’ flashy offense.
“Oh, we still suck,” said defensive lineman Darrion Daniels, one of the team’s bigger personalities. “That’s how we think of it. When we’re watching film, we’ll be like, ‘Hey bro, that was a good play. But you’re still trash.’ That’s how we try to keep ourselves humble.”
Not everyone on the defense fully understands the humility needed to play defense in the Big 12 the way Daniels, a junior, or Richards, a senior, do.
“To me, it’s more about those young guys on the team who aren’t used to this caliber of a win to keep them moving forward,” Richards said. “I was humbled tough my sophomore year, so to me, it’s nothing.
“I have no problem looking to guys like Tre Flowers and Marcell Ateman. Those are guys who help me keep some other guys on board.”
Coaches are always borrowing ideas from each other, and OSU’s Mike Gundy has picked up the phrase Alabama coach Nick Saban made popular recently to describe a team receiving an abundance of praise from outside the program.
“If they’re eating the rat poison, they’re gonna get sick,” Gundy said of his defensive players, with a lighter tone than when Saban debuted the phrase. “They were fantastic (against Texas). The defensive staff was great. But West Virginia couldn’t give a flip about that.
“So they better not eat the rat poison. They better get back to work.”
West Virginia presents a bigger challenge than Texas did, with quarterback Will Grier averaging 366 passing yards per game, David Sills V leading the nation with 15 touchdown receptions and a run game averaging 175 yards a game.
So the defense can’t afford to let the outside praise sink too deep, even for a week.
“The power of social media and media and your buddies and people texting you that this is how great you are — when you’re 20 years old or you’re 50 years old, if you don’t watch it when you listen to people tell you how great you are, you start to think you’re great,” Gundy said. “In this game, you can find out real quick.”
Heading into Saturday’s game OSU is No. 1 in the Big 12 in pass defense efficiency, No. 2 in pass defense and No. 3 in total defense.
Love has been raining down on the defense since Saturday.
But another week like it had against TCU last month and West Virginia can wreck it all, along with OSU’s pursuit of a conference title.
“It feels good, but we have to remember there’s more games to go,” Daniels said. “After those first three games, we felt like the defense had pretty good games. Then we come into TCU and it’s like, dang, we were on top of the world. Now we’re the worst defense. We suck. We’re this and that.
“So we keep ourselves humble. We didn’t do anything special against Texas. We just did our jobs.”